“This was the bust of the year,” Man says kitty litter was mistaken for meth

HOUSTON, Texas – A Texas man is working to clear his name after he says he was wrongly accused of possessing methamphetamine.

In early December, 24-year-old Ross Lebeau was arrested after deputies discovered what they believed to be meth inside his car. Two field tests showed that it was methamphetamine.

“They thought they had the biggest bust in Harris County. This was the bust of the year for them,” Lebeau told KTRK.

However, the case was dismissed this week when officials determined the ‘meth’ was actually kitty litter.

Lebeau says his father had placed a sock with kitty litter inside his car to keep the windows from fogging up.

Lebeau says he doesn’t blame the deputies, but the field tests for his arrest.

Deputies say that Lebeau was found to have marijuana in his car during the stop, and never told them what was inside the sock.

“The Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped Mr. LeBeau for a traffic offense on December 5, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. During that initial stop the deputies detected a strong odor of Marijuana emitting from his vehicle. Mr. LeBeau was question and admitted to having marijuana in the console of his vehicle.

The drugs were recovered and in the process of inventorying his vehicle a substance was found wrapped in one sock in his vehicle. Mr. LeBeau was questioned about the contents at which time he indicated that he had no idea what it was. The deputies followed proper procedures and field tested the substance on two separate occasions which field tested positive for methamphetamines, notified the District Attorney’s Office who accepted charges for possession of controlled substance of 200 grams and Mr. LeBeau posted bond and was released.

During the investigation Mr. LeBeau failed to identify the substance and later, after being released indicated on social media that the substance was cat litter that he kept in a sock in his vehicle.

Regarding this incident all indication shows that the deputies followed basic procedures and followed established protocol related to this incident. Because of the established procedures in place and this contraband was submitted to the Institute of Forensic Science it was determined not to be methamphetamine and charges were dismissed,” a statement from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office read.